Bill Marsh can teach your kid to swim. In fact, he may be better at it than anyone else.

If you think that’s no big deal, consider this: “In the United States, drowning is the leading cause of preventable death for children ages 1-4.” That statistic is cited in A Swim Lesson, the Oscar-shortlisted short documentary that follows Marsh in the pool as he instructs a new class of tots. For little kids, the 8-day-long process can be traumatic – at first.

“They’re hysterical and then they’re vomiting, and then they’re crying, and then they’re running out of the pool,” shares Rashida Jones, the filmmaker and actor who directed the documentary with Will McCormack, a fellow actor-director. McCormack, Jones, and producer Emily Arlook all put their kids through Marsh’s program.

Jones’s son participated in the class in August 2020. “Definitely, there was high drama,” she recalls. “We had a kid who kind of cried the entire class and never stopped crying, but learned how to swim while he was crying, and I was just fascinated with the process. And then Will and our producer, Emily had their kids in class, and we were kind of obsessed with Bill’s teachings, his wisdom beyond just this application for swimming. Emily said, ‘You guys should make a documentary.’ We said, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’”

Read Deadline